The Bishop’s Advisory Group on Mission Strategy oversees programming and grantmaking that enable all of our diocesan congregations, regardless of size or location, to make faithful choices that enable our communities to follow in the way of Jesus.
At the end of 2023, we will have:
- Fostered a shared understanding within our diocese that our grants and resources are focused on Making New Disciples, Targeted Strategic Collaborations, and Holy Endings/New Beginnings and are available to all churches and ministries.
- Created a robust granting process that opens up opportunities for change and growth for our congregations and for our Diocese as a whole.
- Visited with every congregation to discuss opportunities for resource sharing and to encourage and support vitality and vibrant ministry.
Mission Strategy Team:
Ms. Becca Holbrook, co-convener, St. John’s, Bedford
Ms. Valeria Phillips, co-convener, St. Philip’s, Indianapolis
The Rev. Dr. Hilary Cooke, Good Shepherd, West Lafayette
Ms. Shelbi Fortner, St. Peter’s, Lebanon
The Rev. Frank Impicciche, St. Matthew’s, Indianapolis
The Rev. Dr. Gray Lesesne, Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis
Ms. Deb Samples, Good Samaritan, Brownsburg
Ms. Penny Schenck, Trinity, Lawrenceburg
The Rev. Cara Spaccarelli, St. Christopher’s, Carmel
The Rev. Ben Wyatt, Nativity, Indianapolis
Canon Brendan O’Sullivan-Hale, staff liaison
Canon Giulianna Cappelletti Gray, staff liaison
What is Congregational Development?
Congregational Development is the development of congregations of all sizes, locations, and conditions into more faithful, healthy, and effective communities of faith that are:
- Focused on and faithful to their unique reason for being—their primary task—as congregations. Congregations are local expressions of the Body of Christ.
- Connected to and expressive of their unique ecclesial tradition, ethos, and character.
- Self-renewing and responsive to the challenges and opportunities before them.
- Sustainable or working toward greater sustainability in terms of a fit between the elements of their organizational life and the vision for ministry, leadership, culture, size, property, finances, etc.
- Fostering a culture of transparency, courage, flexibility, collaboration, and forgiveness in which the congregation and its leaders have a greater sense of choice.
Congregational Development Grant Basics
- Open to ALL congregations in our Diocese!
- Available for local initiatives related to congregational development.
- One-year grants, with the ability to extend a year. College for Congregational Development attendance is a prerequisite. (May attend in other dioceses.)
- May be shared by congregations (including ecumenical partners, diocesan neighborhoods).
- Recommended by Mission Strategy Team, and approved by Executive Council.
Grants are intended to help support congregations with innovation, collaboration, the ability to engage in healthy, sustainable ministry and mission, leadership empowerment, and neighborhood presence that moves toward engagement
Grants should be based on one of these areas:
- Making New Disciples: Encouraging and equipping both existing congregations and creating new ministries for us to meet new people, to offer God’s invitation and welcome into a community of faith, and to make new disciples. This work particularly targets groups of people currently under-represented in our Diocese, including youth and young adults, disabled persons, people identifying as members of LGBTQIA+ communities, people of color, poor and working-class people, people with a high-school diploma or less, and people with little or no church background or involvement.
- Targeted Strategic Collaborations: Incentivizing and promoting collaborations among and between diocesan congregations and ministries, within our diocesan neighborhoods, and with ecumenical partners.
- Holy Endings/New Beginnings: Helping congregations to choose with grace and dignity when it is time to end their current forms of gathering and doing ministry, to say goodbye well, and to then open themselves for Resurrection and new life. Assisting congregations and ministries that are financially unsustainable at present to develop sustainable patterns of ministry built around their gifts and mission so that they can thrive in new ways.
